Ward woke abruptly. He could tell that it had only been a few hours since he fell asleep from the exhaustion that cling to him like a tight shirt.
"What.." he mumbled, opening his eyes.
"Wake up I said!" A deep voice called. Looking up, Ward felt something hard and sharp on his throat and saw a figure standing over him.
He fought the urge to scramble away, to fight, or to scream. The eyes... The person above him meant business. Their dark eyes told him plainly, "you move you die"
He recognized them a moment later: ravagers... They had the same brown cloaks on as the others he had seen, and under the hood of the man with a sword to his throat he could see a pale face.. he was in his early thirties.
"Good.." the man said, "If you had tried anything you would have died..."
"Mary! Come see! He has promise." The man turned, speaking to someone out of Ward's line of sight. He couldn't turn his head unless he wanted the steel blade to cut him.
"Hmm..."he heard a female voice say, "I like his eyes.. calculating.. You actually might be right, Rold..."
"Right?" The man said, "Ok boy... here's the thing.. you killed some of us, now you got to replace them... That's the rules..."
Ward opened his mouth to reply but shut it after seeing the man's expression. He wasn't going to tolerate any of his questions or comments..
"Get up, let's go" he said. The man withdrew his sword and Ward scrambled to stand up. He was shaking in fear, but tried his best to hide it. There would be no point in trying to escape.. he knew that.. he was far too hungry, tired, and cold to fight.. let alone run...
And whoever these two were, they were clearly more dangerous than the others he had run into.
The hooded man, 'Rold' as he heard him called, took off into a brisk walk. He held the sword in his right hand and Ward was shoved by the woman to his rear into moving.
He followed the man through the forest, all the while wondering what was going to happen to him. "Join them?" He thought, "take their place??"
He knew a bit about the ravagers from Liza, and from the ambush in the forest.. He knew enough to know that they were cold blooded murderers..
"I won't join them..." he said to himself. But he kept walking... fear was a powerful motivator to follow these demons..
"Maybe they are actually just going to kill me?" He wondered, stepping over a bush. He pondered on it for a moment but abandoned the thought, "They could have just killed me in my sleep then.. No need for all this trouble.."
Minutes passed.. then an hour.. then two.. It seemed like they would never stop walking. The landscape shifted over time from the dense forest to the wide open plain he recognized from when he first got to the second trial.. At least, it was similar.
Ahead there was some wooden structure, and when they got within a hundred feet of it the man ahead stopped abruptly.
Ward took a good look at the encampment ahead. It had a large wooden wall, made from massive logs. It was tall enough that it would be hard to climb over, and impossible to see over. It was around thirty feet long and seemed to be rectangular in circumference. There was a singular opening where a massive wooden gate sat. It too was roughly hewn and cobbled together.
A massive figure stood outside, his brown cloak and hood barely fitting his massive frame. He had a large club, bigger than Ward's body, resting on his shoulder.
*whistle* *whistle whistle whistle*
Rold whistled a strange melody and made some gesture Ward couldn't see to the guard at the gate. The massive man motioned for them to come, and opened the gate as they approached.
"Who is this?" The beast of a man grumbled. Ward could see a mass of red beard poking out from under his hood, and Rold said cheerily back,
"Our new recruit."
"Hmm.. this scrawny rat?" The guard replied, "You are gonna be gobbled up in two days..."
His eyes made Ward shudder. They weren't cold, they were hard.. The eyes of someone who has killed... The eyes of someone who has stared death in the face countless times, and won..
Ward didn't say anything, and neither did the woman, but Rold made a passing rebuke as they entered the compound, "Hmm.. I'll bet two days ration he lasts longer.."
"I don't gamble.." the guard replied
"Ha.. right... You just don't want to lose.." Rold said.
Inside the camp there were four tents, all made from a mixture of leather, cloth, and animal hide. The ground had been tampered down, so that the soil was hard and even.
In the center was the largest tent, and all around the camp there were training dummies and various people either working out or hanging about. Several of them stopped to see what the commotion was about, giving Ward hard, questioning looks under their brown hoods.
Rold strode right up to the largest tent and stopped just outside. He said, "The new recruit is here.." and waited..
A moment later the flap to the tent opened and a short woman stepped outside. Rold greeted her, saying, "commander.. this is the new recruit.."
She nodded as Rold stood to the side, gesturing at Ward. She didn't wear a hood like the others, and her robes were a deep crimson. She had striking blue eyes and long flowing blonde hair that accented her face well. She looked Ward in the eye and gave a bright, warm smile. "Welcome! I am Vivian.. and you are?"
"Umm.. Ward" he said warily, blushing slightly.
"Ward. A good name. Rold, see to it he is comfortable and gets trained."
"Yes commander"
A minute later Rold showed him to a smaller tent. Inside were two beds. "This is my bed here.." he said, motioning to a cot off to one side, "and that is yours.." he said, gesturing to a similar cot on the opposite side of the tent.
Ward just nodded, and perhaps his eyes held the question he was thinking because Rold spoke up a moment later, "what, did you think we were going to put you in a prison cell or something? Come on, you are one of us now." He clapped Ward on the back.
It was an odd gesture, and was in no way comforting. Ward simply nodded again as Rold pointed out the other things in the tent,
"Here's a chest with some robes, here is my chest.. don't touch it or I'll kill you., there's a table where you can eat.. Try and keep this fire lit, or you won't eat...."
After the tour was over Rold stopped at the entrance and turned to Ward, "the most important part of the ravagers is this: you don't harm other members, you don't steal from other members, and you do what the commander tells you to no question..."
Ward said, "I understand.."
Rold nodded, "good.. well then. Your training then. The commander said you will get right on it, so you will start now..."
"Maybe this isn't a bad thing.." Ward thought, "If they train me.. maybe... just maybe I can escape..."
He then asked a question, "Rold.. I have but one question.."
The man cocked his eyebrow, and was clearly displeased but said, "be careful boy.. what is your question?"
Ward took a deep breath and raised the courage to ask, "what happened to the others?"
"What do you mean? You mean the 4 you killed in the woods?.. Why do you think we've taken in a young scrawny kid like yourself? Your clearly have skill.."
"I see. That's right..." he tried to sound like he knew the information, and keep the surprise off his face. Deep inside he was joyful, "yes.. I think they might be alive.. Dane.. Liza.. I'll come for you two eventually.."
Ward got changed into a brown robe and was instructed by Rold to keep the hood on when outside. He then led the boy to an area behind the tents where several training dummies were. There were also wooden training weapons on a wobbly table.
In the center was a woman. She held a wooden blade in one hand and her dark eyes peaked out from beneath the hood. "Finally.." she said, her voice familiar. It was the woman who was with Rold in the beginning... Mary, if he remembered correctly..
"Come boy.. I'm not entirely convinced.. show me your skill.." she gestured to the table filled with wooden weapons. Rold stood off to the side, clearly interested. Ward's heart beat fast as he sauntered over to the table. Swords, maces, a staff, a shield.. there was every type of weapon available..
He thought it over for a moment then settled on a long wooden staff.. at the very least he thought he could keep the woman at a distance with it.. oh how he was wrong...
As he approached her the woman dashed forward, seeming to almost teleport as she got in his face. Her sword flashed, and if it had been steel, he would have died then and there. Instead, it struck his side hard and the pain shot through his body.
Yelping he dropped the staff and crumpled on the ground.
"Ha! Weak, I knew their deaths were a fluke..." she snatched him by the hood and pulled him up, "Who killed them..." she interrogated. This time she drew an actual knife, small and sharp, pressing it hard against his throat.
The venom in her voice was clear. They thought he was someone powerful, he clearly wasn't.. The death of their comrades was due to someone else.. They wanted to know who...
In short, he had lost his value..
"Ah, ah, ah" Rold said from the sidelines, "you know the rules Mary... once inducted, you are one of us, and you can't harm another Ravager.."
The woman tightened her grip for a moment as Ward writhed in pain. If looks could kill... hers would have cut him into a thousand pieces, "fine... but I'm not going easy on this rat... and he will tell me who killed the others, or I'll kill him, and you can kill me..."
She was serious. Ward's thoughts raced as he tried to find a way out of this mess. "I.. I'll tell you.." he said, fighting through the pain in his side.
"Of course you will.." she said, not loosening the grip on his hood or the knife..
"I was saved by a middle aged man.. he has kept me alive up to this point.. I never learned his name.. He killed the others.." The pain in his voice made the lie more believable. It was harder to tell whether he was making something up, or telling the truth..
She took the bait. "I see.. that sounds believable.. that old man, he's killed a lot of our people already... Damnit!" She threw him down hard. Ward hit the ground with a loud thud and crumpled, barely keeping consciousness as his head hit the hard earth.
"Oh ho... The old man took you in?" Rold said, "That is interesting.. tell us, where does he live? What's he like?"
Ward wasn't out of the woods yet.. he knew that.. As he lay on the ground he thought of another lie, "we never stayed in one place for too long.. We mostly set up camp in the woods, and ate what we could find.. he never talked much and so I don't know that much about him..."
Ward wasn't sure the lie would hold.. The fact that his vague lie about an older man had rung true in some way was lucky. He wondered about who this old man they talked about was, that was strong enough to kill the ravagers... Whoever he was, he wanted to thank him in person some day...
"Hmm... I see... looks like we won't get anymore out of you.. ok boy, get up.." Mary said. She gestured with her wooden sword towards the staff. He stared at her in disbelief, to which she cocked her head and said, "what? You think training is over? We are only getting started..."